Cowboy Take Me Away

I awake prior to the alarm going off at 4 am.

I pour a cup of coffee and head to my home office. After sending out a few emails and polishing off a bowl of cereal, I am off to paradise. I see my horse, her head is poking out of the window of her stall.  “Jaliska, good morning girl.” She whinnies. "I have an apple for you, here you go." She takes it in one bite.

I open the stable doors. It is a beautiful morning, like spring, nearly 50 degrees. The sunrise is truly spectacular. It's the color of a tropical drink, orange and red all swirled together. Just beautiful.

Jaliska enjoys her morning
ration of hay.

I grab a couple slices of hay to provide some energy for my girl and plug in my i-pod. I start singing “Cowboy Take Me Away” from the Dixie Chicks to her as I pick her hooves. I swear she is swaying to the music.

 

Jaliska suddenly spins around to look out the window. She hears what I can't with my i-pod  plugged in. I see someone walking by, unusual for this hour. “Hello,” I say. “Sorry, did my singing bother you?” He shakes his head no while laughing.


“Who are you,” I ask, not recognizing him as a boarder or stable hand. I am Rob from the hunt, I am here to lay down scent for the dogs.  “Oh, have a great day Rob from the hunt,” I say.

I remove all of the poles from the jumps
and place them on the ground.

Jaliska has already turned around, intent on finishing her early morning ration of hay. I leave her to it and head to the outdoor ring. I remove all of the jumps and lay the poles on the ground. “No jumping without professional supervision.” Barn Rule # 1. This was made very clear to me not so long ago in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, we will leave it at that.

“The jumping is the easy part,” my trainer always says. Best for me to work on the hard part then. That would be getting to the the jump at the right distance, cantering the right number of strides in between and perfecting my gait while jumping the course, etc. etc. etc. This is what I will work on today (and for the rest of my life).

Jaliska contracted lime recently so after ten days of antibiotics, and my slowly building up her endurance, first walking, then walk trot, then walk, trot and a few minutes of cantering, etc. I am finally able to allow her to canter some poles.

Jaliska is on fire today, she is like a finely tuned machine as she manuevers the course. She is dead on center at every pole. She has missed jumping  just as much as me (if you call jumping ground poles jumping). Jaliska is perfection. My ride is a dream. Life is a dream, at the farm.